Knight

“A tough melee fighter. The Barbarian's handsome, cultured cousin. Rumor has it that he was knighted based on the sheer awesomeness of his mustache alone.”

The Knight card is unlocked from the Training Camp (Tutorial). He is a single-target, melee troop with moderate hitpoints and damage. A Knight card costs 3 Elixir to deploy. The Knight wields a long sword and has a blonde mustache and eyebrows.

Strategy

The Knight's statistics are all very moderate. This makes him a very versatile card for 3 Elixir.
The Knight can be used as a tank for smaller troops. He is a great card to use at the front of a mini-push.
The Knight can be used to back up higher hitpoint troops, such as the Giant Skeleton or Giant.
The Knight can only target one target at a time. Using cards such as Guards or the Skeleton Army will distract and overwhelm the Knight. Keep in mind that his rather high health allows him to plough through smaller swarms before they can destroy him.
He can survive a hit or two from a Prince, although swarms are still recommended over him when countering the Prince.
A Knight can be used to bait the enemy's swarms or distract the Inferno Tower for your larger units.
He can be supported with Skeletons, Goblins, or Spear Goblins to quickly deal high damage. This combo is not only cheap but versatile. It also gives you enough time and Elixir to defend against your opponent. Deploy a splash or air troop like the Bomber or Minions to counter one of these pushes.
The Knight is a good counter to cards such as the Dark Prince, Executioner, Miner, and Giant Skeleton due to his health, damage per second, and cheap Elixir cost.
It's very effective to use him against support cards such as a Wizard or a Witch due to his fast hit speed, high health, and cheap cost.
The player should not ignore the Knight since he can actually deal great damage to a Princess Tower by himself. Use cheap troops like Skeletons to pull him towards the center so that the Knight gets distracted and can't get to the Tower easily.
The Knight can be used as a cheap counter to an X-Bow. Place down the Knight before the X-Bow finishes deploying. The X-Bow will be heavily damaged if not destroyed by the Knight.
With the help of a Crown Tower, the Knight can defeat the Mega Knight alone for a 4 Elixir advantage provided that the Mega Knight is not allowed to jump.

History

The Knight was released with Clash Royale's soft launch on 4/1/16.
On 18/5/16 a Balance Update increased the Knight's hitpoints by 10%.
On 12/12/17 a Balance Update decreased the Knight’s hit speed to 1.2 seconds (from 1.1 seconds).
On 12/2/18, a Balance Update decreased the Knight's hitpoints by 6%.
On 25/4/18, the Clan Wars update increased the Knight’s hitpoints by 3%.
On 6/8/18, a Balance Update increased the Knight's damage by 5%.

Trivia

From the Knight's description, the Knight and the Barbarians are said to be distant cousins, due to their physical similarities and especially their mustaches. In fact, they do the same damage per hit as mentioned above, but the Knight has a faster hit speed, so he has a higher damage per second.
In the tutorial, the Knight is the first card that the player is told to use, although it is not required to place him down first.
The Knight used to have shoulder pads which were colored blue or red depending on the side. This was later removed.
The Knight has one Emote in the CRL Emotes set.